It is common that electronic equipment manufactured for an English speaking market finds its way into non-English speaking markets. When such equipments contain control panels or keyboards with English instructions or indications thereon, manufacturers are often required to install substitute control panels and/or keyboards for the non-English speaking customers.
A keyboard or control panel normally comprises an underlying printed circuit board with a plurality of push-switches mounted thereon. A molded-in key structure is positioned over and attaches to the printed circuit board or the equipment's cabinet. Individual keys of the molded-in key structure are depressible and actuate the underlying push-switches. To accommodate the non-English speaker, the molded-in key structure is removed and replaced by a new key structure having local language function indications printed on the keys.
This is both expensive and requires that a variety of part numbers be stocked for the individual markets.
In an attempt to avoid the need to replace the key structures, the prior art has employed thin overlay templates, with the keyboard keys extending through openings in the template. Adjacent to the keys, foreign language indications are placed that indicate key functions. The disadvantages of such templates are that the distances between the keys are often quite narrow, and it is difficult to fit the foreign language indication in the limited available space. Further, it is difficult for the operator to identify which key goes with which template legend.
The prior art has also accommodated this problem by providing key cap labels with the foreign language indications or new key caps with such indications imprinted thereon. The disadvantages of such labelling or replacement caps is that it is time consuming to place the labels on each separate key or to replace the individual caps. It is also costly for the manufacturer to maintain and keep track of an inventory of these parts, especially when there are a multiplicity of language stickers or caps which need to be provided. For instance, it is often the case that ten or more different languages must be accommodated.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a keyboard/control panel overlay for foreign market use.
It is another object of this invention to provide a keyboard/control panel overlay that enables key function indications to be quickly and rapidly changed without requiring any changes to the underlying keyboard.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a molded inexpensive keyboard overlay.